POTPOURRI
Nonfiction:
One of the single greatest demonstrations of amateur nonfiction writing is the lack of specificity. As I edit proposals for clients that otherwise write well, I'm frequently struck by the quantity of opinions unsupported by evidence and generalities unsupported by facts and figures.
For instance, here is a general statement of truth:
In recent years, walking has risen in popularity, becoming many Americans preferred fitness activity.
This is a perfectly good sentence, but it reflects an opinion and lacks any form of support. See how Carolyn Kortge, author of The Spirited Walker (HarperCollins), transforms this general statement into professional writing, as taken from her query letter on this book:
"Walking is the nation's most popular fitness activity, five times as popular as jogging," New York Times health writer Jane Brody reported in an April 17, 1996, article. Pollsters tell us that anywhere from 36 to 60 million Americans walk for exercise. The Walking Magazine labels 16.2 million of those people "frequent walkers" who exercise more than 100 days a year.
Just making this one change in your writing, adding specificity, will move you one step closer to professional writing standards. Where do you find statistics and facts? One gem I recommend is: The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators: American Society at the End of the Twentieth Century, by William J. Bennett, author of nine other books. Published by Broadway Books in 1999, the paperback costs $10.95.
Fiction:
In my work with writers over the years, I've come to believe that mastering plotting is far easier than mastering characterization. Creating depth of character means, for the writer, diving into the mostly uncharted waters of the psyche, the soul, and the spirit. Recently, I led one of my three critique groups on a guided tour of these waters. I gave the assignment of discovering and developing a metaphor for the protagonist or other point-of-view characters. One of my dictionaries defines metaphor as: "A figure of speech in which a term is transferred from the object it ordinarily designates to an object it may designate only by implicit comparison or analogy." The dictionary goes on to give the example, "the evening of my life." We use metaphors in daily speech all of the time. Don't believe me? Stud muffin. Dog days. Buried under a mountain of paperwork.
My belief is that human beings make decisions that are consistent with the metaphors or myths they have learned and adopted. Since fiction seeks to approximate life, but is far more selective, it makes sense to limit to one, or two, the metaphor that represents a character.
For instance, many characters fit a warrior metaphor. Fighters, soldiers, law-enforcement personnel, and survivor types may their lives as a battlefield. If the battle or war metaphor fits a character, you can expect him or her to talk and act consistent with that metaphor. Let's consider characters who see life through the viewing lens of an artist. The portrait of their lives will lead them to think, talk, and far differently than the warrior. Just think of someone who the shades and gradations of meaning, who views life as a canvas awaiting the application of color and vision. What would it be like for the artist to find common ground with someone who divides the world into the powerful and the weak, into friend and foe, conquered and vanquished? What if these two marry each other?
After you have discovered the metaphor for your character, the next step is to find the words and concepts that express it. Is your character a nature-lover, a descendant of farmers? Your word and phrase list might include: broadcasting seeds, planting, waiting for the harvest, plowing under, for everything there is a season, roots, fertile, fields, trust and faith, sowing and reaping. This list is your resource for characterization. Draw from it when you are writing this character's point of view, in narration and in dialogue. With knowledge of a character's primary metaphor and with word list in hand, you'll have an easier time mastering one of a fiction writer's most difficult tasks: writing an extended metaphor.
Once you get the lay of the land, the land of metaphor that is, you will have all kinds of fun, working your word lists and phrases intothe prose, planting subtle seeds that the reader may sense at deep, perhaps right-brain, levels. The culmination could be a wonderful harvest: deeper and truer characterization, more artistry in your writing, and touching the reader. Like a cleansing rain or a breath of mountain air, your writing will refresh you and your reader. Can you tell that I began life on a Midwest farm?
Two resources for helping you find metaphors that fit your characters: Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help us Find Ourselves and Transform our World by Carol S. Pearson (HarperSanFrancisco, $14.95 pb), and, from a pre-eminent screenplay writer and teacher, Power Screenwriting: Ancient Archetypes in Modern Cinema by Michael Chase Walker (Mentor Books, spiral bound, 300 pages, $42).
Marketing:
If you write articles or short stories, build your storehouse to 12 manuscripts and make sure you always have 12 circulating in search of a publication. This idea is called, "The Rule of 12" and it works. When you sell a piece, hopefully for first rights, get it back in circulation as a reprint.
If you are marketing a book, fiction or nonfiction, I can't help but share one bias: It probably isn't ready to sell. Make sure that you have a competent person edit your manuscript before you waste time and opportunities by prematurely trying to sell it. That said, the secret to marketing a novel is EXPOSURE, exposure of the manuscript or proposal to agents and editors, and exposure of you, yes you, to these purchasers. First, exposure of the manuscript: You have to get your nonfiction proposal, novel, or a partial out there, eventually to find the agent or editor who will acquire it because it fits the bill. What's the bill?
There is room for it.
The agent has room for another client; the editor needs to fill a slot for your kind of book.
It's well written.
They think they can sell zillions of copies.
Like a chemistry formula, you've got to have all three criteria or you don't have combustion. Before you can gain the reading attention of an agent or editor, you have to write a great query and, for a novel, often a great synopsis, and you must capture them with your sample chapters. Next, you need to build a list of agents and/or editors by using marketing directories such as Guide to Literary Agents (Writers Digest) or Jeff Herman's Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents. Last, you must be Teflon-coated and let rejection slide off your shoulders. It's their loss. In other words, keep on marketing, period. (Click on Books and read about The Sell-Your-Novel Toolkit, where you can get the full explanation for how to market.)
Second, you must present you, the author, to the purchasers: What most writers I know dislike about the necessity of exposure, is meeting agents and editors in person. Most of business in America, and publishing is no exception, gets accomplished through personal connections. I believe that every writer of a nonfiction book or novel who feels ready to sell should go to at least one marketing conference each year, as well as pursue every referral or personal connection with agents or editors.
One of my editing clients, who beat the record by holding his first published novel in his hands just four years after he wrote his first words of fiction, offered this advice: "Writers should take business communication," he said, "and it wouldn't hurt to take drama and acting lessons."
For those of you who feel terror just reading this advice, go to a few conferences and you'll begin to learn the ropes. Dress for success and practice your pitch. Make appointments with agents and editors if you can, and schmooze in the bars and hospitality rooms of the hotels. Follow up any contact with thank you notes or the requested material. Build relationships.
Wisdom:
Body-mind-emotions-spirit. All inter-related and requiring our attention. To be a writer means that you must address the totality of your self and its needs. This week's tip addresses necks and shoulders, two parts of the body that take the brunt of stress from of typing or reading.
What have you done for your neck and shoulders today? What have you done TO your neck and shoulders? Try a few of the following excersizes to care for this part of your body:
1. Many times a day, rotate your head up and down, side to side, following a grid. It might help to imagine the face of a clock. When you move your head down, imagine your chin touching a 6 on your chest. Raise your head all the way back to the 12. Then hit all the numbers in turn, clockwise, counter clockwise, and repeat.
2.For loosening up your shoulders, practice the art of shrugging. A good shrug really moves all the muscles in your upper back. Progress to shoulder rolls, circles from front to back and from back to front. You can do shrugs and rolls while sitting or standing. Next, stand and do windmills with your extended arms, back to front and front to back. Vary the arc, making giant circles, mid-sized circles, and little circles. Feel like doing punches? Make a fist and punch the air in front of you with first one and then the other hand. After a while, do the same but punch the sky above you, alternating hands.
If you do these two exercises half a dozen times during your day, you will save yourself pain and lost hours visiting doctors. Last of all, give yourself the gift of a weekly upper-body massage. Ahhhh.
©2000 Elizabeth Lyon